North Carolina Urges Sterilization Victims to Come Forward

North Carolina Urges Sterilization Victims to Come Forward

Lela Duncan was only 13 when she gave birth to a son in the Chapel Hill area of North Carolina. She said she was unaware why county officials had visited her mother within a year of her son's birth, or the duress under which her mother was forced to commit her to the home for wayward girls. While Duncan had committed no crime, she was carted off and held for years at the institution. Under North Carolina statute, Duncan was eligible to leave the home only after being surgically sterilized under a platform known as eugenic sterilization.